TOPIC: Midland Border pipers

My pipes have arrived now and I have started making noises with them! Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any interest re. this thread so I expect I'll have to carry on teaching myself.
Once I get past the 'interrupted noises' stage I guess I'll look up some local pipers' groups. I won't be looking for any 'marching bands' though - the local ones hereabouts have never replied to my first contact

Hi Michael I hope you're happy with those pipes. At the end of November it had started to look like I had found a willing instructor and that things might actually start to happen. By the end of the year with my emails and phone calls going unanswered I chucked the towel in.

I've a pretty limited contact list when it comes down to getting something like a teaching event off the ground and the lack of response on this thread and that reaction from an established tutor put me right off pushing the envelope.

I still think there is plenty of scope for an event well away from Scotland where there are plenty of people teaching pipes both formally and informally. I'm also of the suspicion that there is perhaps less of a call for border pipe tuition in general as border pipers are more likely to be experienced pipers making the change and thus able to muddle through the early difficulties unaided. I think that is a shame if true and could be delt with with the right sort of event.

My attempts to use these boards to dig out border pipers and establish the anecdotal truth of it all have completely bombed though. I understand to from an earlier thread regarding the LBPS teaching weekend that only 4 border pipers attended and 3 of them took smallpipes. Ironically I think more would go to a dedicated event that wasn't in Scotland (for reasons stated above) but that is really just a hunch. Perhaps the resurgence of this thread might muddy the waters again...

Hello all, just registering my interest as a possible Midlands piper (currently London based but with one foot in Lincoln). I'm making a very slow transition from Highland to Border pipes and have never even seen them played live and do not know anyone else that plays; I'd do my best to make any kind of event to reassure myself that this instrument does exist!

Nice one pal good luck with it. I'm starting to get the urge to give getting something off the ground regarding all this again. I will be in touch ( and shouting loud from the hill tops!) if I do. Meanwhile I will say this having struggled for months before getting anywhere with the bellows. Don't be affraid to put stuff into practice from the GHB. I was so reluctant to touch the reed that I ignored all my instincts for months preferring instead to pump away like a vicar with a punctured bike tyre on the night of the boarding boys choir practice. The moment I did overcome this reticence and close the reed I was away and everything started to fall into place.

Things like this a decent tutor will pick up instantly, on our own we just have to go with instinct and trial and error. With a background on the GHB you've a great foundation for building the new technique. In terms of repertoire I really wouldn't bother with a lot of the Northumbrian stuff (and the stuff sold on this website either) unless that's your thing that is. If you want to play with other musicians and don't want to have to travel hundreds of miles to do so get yourself on thesession.org or folktunefinder and learn the tunes played at your local sessions. Ultimately you'll have more fun and get more feed back on your playing that way than sitting in your bedroom struggling to play ancient obscurities in isolation.